


the tea case

by Bitterblue



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 09:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2063556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitterblue/pseuds/Bitterblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel finds papers--the codes to the genome?--in her father's case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the tea case

When they move his body, Rachel takes his little cigarette case he'd used to store tea. She cannot recall him smoking, which leads to the faintly absurd conclusion that he'd bought it as portable tea storage. If she has a feeling about this, she is unaware.

The case is set aside, unopened despite whatever evidence it might contain, in her apartment; it becomes part of the small pile of childhood memories she cannot recall and would prefer to forget.

She opens it by accident, hunting through the drawer ( _out of sight, out of mind_ , and if she concentrates enough she can almost remember the sound of her mother's voice). In the first moment, she draws her hand back as if snapped at by a venomous snake. The case lies flat and does not bite. Inside are a single tea bag and a few yellowing scraps of paper.

 _Triumph_  rushes through her: these are the keys to the sequences, these are the keys to unlock the code, these are the keys to her kingdom. Heedless of any lingering poison, she snatches them from the case (just in case it might be inclined to bite after all) and shuffles through them.

They are yellowed and faded to different degrees, all worn as if read many times, little A5 scraps of paper with permanently folded middles. The handwriting is her father's, unmistakable. Rachel scrambles for pen and paper of her own, then considers. She should give them to her team immediately, but part of her is strangely reluctant to give up this thread of connection she has only so recently found. She will copy the information. She will give it to Martin to reproduce and disseminate until the sequences are broken. These little scraps will go back in the drawer where they belong, tucked between a single old tea bag and a half dozen video cassettes, never to be spoken of or thought of again.

Looking at the piece of paper, Rachel realizes it is on the page like a letter, heading and all. She flips through the other papers and realizes they are  _all_  letters, some unsent epistolary missives. They must contain the keys. They must. Why else would he carry them? With a back of the throat, irritated noise, she sorts them roughly by how old they might be, and begins to transcribe. No part of her notices how her handwriting has the same flow and sharp corners that her father's handwriting had had. No part at all.

_MNJA AJLQNU,_  
 _CXMJH HXD FXDUM KN WRWN. R QXYN RC RB J ENAH PXXM KRACQMJH, FRCQ VJWH PROCB._  
 _UXEN, OJCQNA_  
  
 _UEBAELM WXAF,_  
 _RIN BAE MPEFOE MIUBR BHU X GXLL RIN GIAE MDBH PIAUL._  
 _FIOE, VBMDEA_  
  
 _UECY VLTHGS,_  
 _CZL ATL JTWTGLR EFDCF M SFPG FSFI MQALPI APK M HFUNK FP GRQBH ZW YQB. M SFPG FSF NOWSH MV PTVYO FF WZ._  
 _EWC MA SSGV, FCALPI_

The letters swim before her, demanding double and triple checks, stirring some long-buried memory of simple substitution ciphers and games with secret codes. Rachel shrugs them aside, refolding the small papers and placing them back in the case.

She will give the codes to Martin in the morning to have them deciphered and work to begin.

**Author's Note:**

> The key should be obvious on a quick guess and is the same for all three ciphers, but each cipher uses a different system (they are least to most difficult in order--the first one will help you solve the last). Please don't post the solutions here or on tumblr, but I'm happy to confirm them if you send an ask off anon over there.


End file.
